Who's Afraid of the Boogeyman?
by Realmer06
Summary: When I was with Dr. Suresh, I didn't feel alone. I didn't feel little. And most of all, I didn't feel scared. I knew when he said he would keep me safe, he meant it. When he said he wouldn't let me die, he meant it. A Molly&Mohinder fic. Finale spoilers.


My first Heroes fic, which means I'm officially obsessed. This one is Molly and Mohinder, because I absolutely adore Daddy!Mohinder more than I could ever express. Takes place during and immediately following the season finale, so, obviously, spoilers for "How to Stop an Exploding Man."

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Heroes, the show or the people. I'm not making any money with this, though I'd be completely flattered and floored if you thought it should earn some.

Enjoy!

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_Who's Afraid of the Boogeyman?_

Daddy used to tell me that if I wasn't a good girl, the boogeyman would come and get me. If I talked back to my parents, if I didn't eat my vegetables, if I didn't keep my room clean, the boogeyman would come and take me away. But when he did come, it was Daddy that he came for.

And later, I wondered what Daddy had done wrong, what bad thing he had done to bring the boogeyman to him. But I couldn't ask, because they didn't let me see him. They only told me he was gone, and Mommy too. The only reason I wasn't was because Mommy had put me in the closet and told me not to talk until she told me I could.

There were so many voices. There were so many and they were saying all sorts of things and I didn't know who the boogeyman was. I didn't know where he was. I only knew he wanted to hurt Daddy, and maybe he wanted to hurt me, too. There were so many voices, and none of them were Mommy. They told me the boogeyman couldn't find me. They said he wanted to, but he couldn't. No one could. Because Mommy hid me. No one could find me. No one but Officer Parkman.

He was my hero. He found me when the boogeyman couldn't. He told me he would keep me safe. Then they took me away from him. They put me in a room at the top of a tall building and they told me I was safe. But the boogeyman came back. He found me anyway.

He kept coming back after that, even though they moved me again, to another room in another building, as small as cold as the first one had been. But they couldn't keep me from the boogeyman. I saw him in my head. When I went to sleep, I would think about him and he would come back. And there was no one to save me.

They asked me to find people for them. They showed me pictures and I used my map to show them where the people were. I didn't know why they wanted to know, but I showed them because that's what Daddy had taught me to do. If I talked back or told them no, the boogeyman would come to take me away.

When I was awake, I thought about him all the time, to make sure I knew where he was. To make sure I knew he wasn't with me, the way I saw every night in my head. And then one day I couldn't. I couldn't find him. I thought about him, but I didn't know where he was. And I thought about Officer Parkman, but I couldn't find him either. I couldn't find anyone. I got scared. Because the boogeyman could come for me, and I wouldn't know. I didn't know where he was; I didn't know if I was safe anymore. When the darkness came each night, so did he. I didn't know how to escape.

They told me I was sick. They told me something was wrong in my head, and that was why I couldn't find people. They told me they were trying to fix me, make me better. They brought in doctors and nurses and strange men who took my blood and put me in machines and watched me, but no one could help. None of the strangers could save me from the boogeyman.

The nightmares got worse, and I would wake up screaming and crying, but no one would come. No one was there to help me. The room I was in was so cold. It had my bed and my carpet and my table, but the walls were only curtains, and I knew if I pushed them aside, I'd be back in the room with the machines and the big windows and the cold floors. I knew I'd be alone. I knew no one would be able to hear me unless I pushed a button.

Then Dr. Suresh came. And he was different. He talked to me. He colored with me. And he wanted me to be better because I was sick. He wanted to make me better so I could get rid of the boogeyman. He wanted to make me better, and he was angry when he couldn't. He was angry for me. The others had just given up and left. But he didn't. When I was with Dr. Suresh, I didn't feel alone. I didn't feel little. And most of all, I didn't feel scared. I knew when he said he would keep me safe, he meant it. When he said he wouldn't let me die, he meant it.

He told me about his sister and about his father and about other people like me. He listened when I told him stories about my Daddy and Mommy. He smiled at me. And he made me better. He stayed with me. He didn't leave me. He told them he needed to be with me, so they gave him a little bed and he put it behind the curtain and he didn't leave.

And when the boogeyman came in my head at night, he was there. He held me and told me that I was safe, that he would always keep me safe. He sang an Indian song and helped me go to sleep. He cared about me. He kept the boogeyman away.

And when the man came with the gun and wanted to hurt me, Dr. Suresh was there again, keeping his promise. I was scared, because it was just like before, and this man wanted to hurt me, and I didn't know why. But Dr. Suresh was there. And he kept me safe.

I found Sylar for them so that they could go and stop him. It was hard because I was sick, but I knew I could do it. But they didn't make it in time. He found us anyway. He was there, when we got outside, Dr. Suresh and me and the family we'd found with the boy who could make the elevator work. And something happened when I looked at him. He was just a man. A bad man, yes. A man who was doing scary things and hurting people, a bad man who wanted to take away what I could do and what the other people could do, but he was still just a man. He wasn't made of shadows and he wasn't only half-way there. He wasn't the boogeyman. The horrible shape-shifter I'd seen inside my head, the one I'd thought had come to get me before, wasn't this man standing before me.

That's when I knew Dr. Suresh really had made the boogeyman go away.

"He isn't real," I whispered, and somehow I knew that was worse. Because this man, this Sylar, didn't have the excuse of being the boogeyman. He was a real person, and he was still doing these things. The boogeyman had to, it was what he was. But this bad man . . . he didn't, and he was anyway, and that was so much worse.

And I had to look away from the horrible things that were happening. The woman held me tight, even though I wanted it to be Dr. Suresh, but the bad man had hurt Officer Parkman, and Dr. Suresh had to help him. And all these other people, strangers, came to fight the bad man, and they beat him, but other things were happening, things I didn't understand until Dr. Suresh explained them later. I watched the flying man take the burning man away into the sky, and then I saw the explosion, and then . . . after everything that had happened, it was so quiet.

I cried then. I cried for Officer Parkman and the burning man and the flying man. I cried because I'd seen someone get shot and someone explode and had a gun pointed at me and watched the boogeyman disappear all in one night and I didn't know what else to do. That's when Dr. Suresh came over and held me, just like he'd done in the nights with the boogeyman.

"The boogeyman's gone," I told him.

"Yes," he said. "Sylar's gone, Molly. He won't hurt you anymore." I shook my head.

"No," I said. "Sylar wasn't the boogeyman. I saw that tonight. You made the boogeyman go away a long time ago." And I hugged him again and after a moment, he hugged me back. "I love you, Dr. Suresh."

And then he said something that no one had said to me since my Daddy had been taken away. "I love you, too, Molly," he said. And I knew he meant it.

"That makes me your little girl, you know," I told him.

"Does it?" he asked, smiling. I nodded. "Good," he said, touching his forehead to mine. And I smiled, for the first time that night, because I learned that when you're someone's little girl, you can get through just about anything. "Let's go home," he said to me, and stood and took my hand and started to lead me away.

And I followed without asking where we were going because I knew it didn't matter. He was my home. He was my family. He was my hero.

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Please review! It means a lot to me!

Realmer


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